MORE ON: County jails

In the next year, many of California’s local jails might limit federal immigration “holds” to detainees with felony convictions, greatly reducing the number of people deported from the state solely for entering the country without permission. Gov. Jerry Brown met with leaders... + read more

One day in March, a blind man was booked into the San Bernardino County jail. A parole violator, he could see only four inches in front of his face. At the West Valley Detention Center, according to his account, deputies assigned him the upper bunk in a cell at the top of a tall staircase.... + read more

At the first-ever congressional hearing on the subject of solitary confinement, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois recently observed that it’s not always “the worst of the worst” who are subjected to the practice. Mentally ill inmates, immigrants and juvenile offenders... + read more

Faced with an influx of inmates, sheriffs across the state are backing a bill that would allow some felons to leave jail before they have completed serving their sentences. The legislation would apply to inmates who are dying or are so physically incapacitated that they pose no threat to... + read more

California counties receiving an influx of low-level convicts are preparing to spend millions of dollars for more jail space in the years ahead, but plans for reducing the number incarcerated are far less concrete. That is the overarching finding of a new report by the ACLU of California,... + read more